All of those lawsuits were filed in the US. Apple, in addition to suing in a court, also lodged a complaint with the US International Trade Commission, which could ban imports of infringing merchandise into the US.

While suing only in the US, the three plaintiffs also filed for international equivalents of some of the patents-in-suit (the patents they are now trying to enforce in court). There's a misconception among some people that software patents are a purely American phenomenon. They do exist in Europe, Asia and Australia as well.

There are various reasons for which Apple, Oracle and Paul Allen's Interval Licensing sue only in the US. After all, it's the jurisdiction where they have more patents than anywhere else, it's the largest single market at this point (since the EU doesn't have a single patent that can be enforced Europe-wide in only one litigation), and it's the legal system with which they and their lawyers are most comfortable. If they prevail in the US, they can most probably resolve the matter with respect to the rest of the world through negotiation, typically by agreeing on a worldwide license fee or -- if they want (like Apple) an injunction instead of money, through local cease-and-desist orders or a related clause of an overall settlement.

Nevertheless it's interesting to take a look at the international (European, Asian and Australian) aspects of those spectacular patent cases. It tells something about how internationally oriented those companies were during different parts of their history, and in some cases it shows that some other jurisdictions don't grant patents as easily as the US.

Please note that the information provided below on international equivalents of some of those US patents-in-suit isn't guaranteed to be complete. It is possible that additional international versions of some of the patents-in-suit exist but weren't identified by me.

Of the three plaintiffs discussed in here, Apple clearly has the strongest position in terms of international patents. They always seemed to have been quite internationally oriented, and over the last decade or so even more than before.

Its patent on "time-based, non-constant translation of user interface objects between states" was filed internationally and is currently under examination at the European Patent Office (EPO).

The patent on a "touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics" was also applied for worldwide, in particular in Europe, South Korea, Japan, Canada and Australia. In addition to filing for a regular patent at the European level, Apple also obtained a utility model (a fast-track patent-like right) in Germany. Looking at that list, it's clear that Apple regards this patent as highly strategic.

Sun filed for a patent on "protection domains to provide security in a computer system" in Australia and at the EPO, where it withdrew it (probably by failure to pay fees) in 2000. Companies withdraw such applications only if the examiners have serious objections that make it a waste of time and money to continue the process.

The patent application for a "method and device for preprocessing and packaging of class file" was filed in Japan and with the EPO, where Sun designated six countries (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden).

Interval filed for its patent on a "browser for use in navigating a body of information, with particular application to browsing information represented by audiovisual data" in Australia and with the EPO, where it, however, withdrew its application in 2000.

Finally, an Interval patent-in-suit with significant international presence relates to an "attention manager for occupying the peripheral attention of a person in the vicinity of a display device." It was filed for in Australia, Japan, and with the EPO, with Germany, the UK and France being the designated countries there.

This overview demonstrates that the patent game is a global one, even though there are reasons (mentioned further above) for which litigation usually takes place in the US when patents are enforced against major IT companies.

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About Me

Florian Mueller is a former award-winning intellectual property activist with 25 years of software industry expertise spanning across different market segments (games, education, productivity and infrastructure software), diverse business models and a variety of technical and commercial areas of responsibility. In recent years, Florian advised a diversity of clients on the patent wars surrounding mobile devices, and on their economic and technical implications. (In order to avoid conflicts of interest, Florian does not hold or initiate transactions in any technology stocks or derivatives thereof.) He is now developing a game app for smartphones and tablet computers.